The Heavenly Long Count Calendar

The Heavenly Long Count is a 720-year calendar round that is used as a parallel method of timekeeping in the Ancient Empire. Whilst they had the traditional system of counting years by dynasty, the Long Count cycles every 720 years, in cycles called 命, (miin), and carries on cycling uninterrupted by earthly politics and changes in dynastic rule.

Each Long Count corresponds roughly to a dragon's full "living" lifespan, and builds upon the traditional human Sexagenary Cycle. The Long Count number is often not recorded, with each new cycle beginning anew without being counted.

It is often prudent to record annals using Long Count calendar, as sometimes recording by dynasty count can be troublesome, especially during times of turmoil.

The Sexagenary Cycle is the human calendar that began during the latter half of the ancient dynasty of Miao, before the unification of the Ancient Empire.

Its year cycle is based upon the Ten Heavenly Branches, and the Twelve Earthly Stems.

Heavenly Branches: 甲 乙 丙 丁 戊 己 庚 辛 壬 癸

Earthly Stems: 子 丑 寅 卯 辰 巳 午 未 申 酉 戌 亥

The Sexagenary cycle however became impractical with draconic rule, being that it cycled, in their eyes, relatively quickly, with a dozen or more cycles occurring through one's life. Therefore, the draconic bureaucrats in the dynasty of Txhaan devised a further extension of the system, the Twelve Greater Houses, to form the modern 720 year 命.

Each House is prepended to each cycle of the sixty year cycle in turn, creating twelve cycles of sixty.

For example, the 164th year of a long count is called 龑丁未 (The year 丁未 in the cycle of 龑)